Scrubber and scraper disk with rope wiper element



May 19, 1970 z. .1. JAGIEL 3,512,204 SCRUBBER AND SCRAPER DISK WITH ROPE WIPER ELEMENT Filed March 25, 1968 FIG.4

FIGJ

FIG. 6

INVENTOR. ZIGMUND J.JAGIEL ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,512,204 SCRUBBER AND SCRAPER DISK WITH ROPE WIPER ELEMENT Zigmund J. Jagiel, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Hugh A. Kirk, Toledo, Ohio Filed Mar. 25, 1968, Ser. No. 715,640

Int. Cl. A411 11/16 U.S. Cl. 15230.16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A detachable plate or rotary disk-type rug or carpet scrubber and/or floor scraper for a floor-type scrubbing machine, which scrubber comprises a rigid plate which has on its bottom surface at least a peripheral marginal flat portion and may also have a central concave portion, and also has spaced slots. A locking hub may be centrally or eccentrically mounted on the top surface of the plate or disk for removable attachment to a moving or rotating means on the scrubbing machine. An easily replaceable rope may be interwoven in between some of the slots of the plate or disk to provide scouring ribs on its bottom surface. Also rigid U-shaped blades or scrapers with cutting edges substantially parallel to the floor or surface being scraped may be removably attached to the disk throughthe slots.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Previously such plates or disks for carpet or floor scrubbing and scouring machines comprised brushes with bristles which are comparatively expensive and, when rotated, all their pile or bristles soon became directed in substantially the same direction, thus reducing their effective scrubbing or scouring action.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Generally speaking, the scrubbing member of this invention comprises a comparatively non-flexible, rigid plate or disk which may be made out of a metal such as aluminum or a glass fibers reinforced plastic, and may be rectangular, polygonal, or circular in shape. This plate contains slots which completely pass through the plate or disk and extend inwardly from the edges of the plates or disks so that these slots act as scrubbing edges, means for removing the dirt'scrubbed from the carpets or other surfaces, and/or means for permitting a cleaning liquid to pass from the upper surface of the plate to its lower surface inwardly from the periphery of the plate. These scrubber members may have on the upper surface of the plate or disk a hub for removably fastening or locking the plate or disk onto a scrubbing machine for imparting a scrubbing action to the lower surface of the plate or disk, which action may be rotary, reciprocating, oscillatory, or a combination of two or more such movements in a plane parallel to the surface to be scrubbed. These scrubbing machines may be portable floor treatment machines, including those for household use in which several diflferent accessories are provided, such as in buffers, polishers, scrapers, brushes, etc. for floors including cleaning carpets. The scrubbing action of the present device may be accentuated by interweaving between the slots in its plate a rope to provide tight and easily replaceable fabric ridges on the bottom or scrubbing surface of the plate. The slots may be divergent or radial in disk plate so as the rope is intertwined between them the angle between the slots will prevent the rope from being forced therefrom by the motion of the disk or centrifugal force when the disk is rotated. Rigid U-shaped scraper blades may be removably fastened by bolts in the slots to the plate or disk at angles to its motion for cutting and scraping matter which'adheres to hard floors. Furthermore, the slots may be arranged eccentrically of the disk and/or the hub on the disk may be eccentric to provide an additional scrubbing action for the slots in the surface of the disk, the segments of rope, or the scrapers anchored to the disk in the slots.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, efiicient, economic, effective, easily replaceable, and inexpensive detachable scrubber plate or member for floor treatment machines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above mentioned and other features, objects, and advantages and a manner of attaining them are described more specifically below by reference to embodiments of this invention shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention comprising a rigid slotted floor scrubbing disk;

FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the disk shown in FIG. 1 taken along line IIIIII thereof, showing it installed in a home type floor or carpet scrubbing machine with parts thereof being broken away, but showing a housing for the disk, its connection to a driving means, and a tube for application of cleaning fluid to the upper surface of the disk; I

FIG. 4 is a top perspective view, similar to FIG. 1, showing the addition of a fabric rope intertwined between some of the slots of the disk;

FIG 5 is a bottom perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, with the scrubbing segment ribs or rope on its bottom surface; and

FIG. 6 is a bottom perspective view similar to FIG. 5, but showing still another embodiment of this invention, with a plurality of U-shaped cutting scrapers bolted through the slots to the disk.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Although the plate or scrubbing member of this invention may be polygonal, rectangular, or other shaped, the particular embodiment disclosed herein, by way of example, is a rigid circular disk 10 provided with radial slots 11 and 12, or as in FIGS. 4 and 5, slots 13 and 14, respectively, of difierent widths. It is desirable that the slots 11, 12, 13 and 14 extend completely through the thickness of the plate or disk so that dirt which is picked up in them will not remain in them to decrease their scrubbing action or hinder the flow or dispersion of cleaning liquid through them. The top or surface portion 1 5 of the disk 10 may be tapered or frusto-conical as shown in FIG. 3, or it may be parallel to that portion of the bottom surface 17 which is substantially parallel to the floor or surface to be scrubbed. Furthermore, the central bottom surface of the disk 10 may be concave as shown at 18in FIGS. 2 and 3.

If desired, as shown in the embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5, the wider radial slots 13 and 14 are provided for the insertion and inter-weaving of a length of plastic or fabric rope 20. The fact that these radial slots are closer together at their inner ends than at their outer ends prevents the rope from sliding out of the slots after it had its ends knotted at 21 as shown on the upper surface of the disk 10 in FIG. 4. Since the slip knots 21 are away from the bottom or lower scrubbing surface, they are prevented from being untied by motion between them and the floor. Also the rope 20 may be easily removed by cutting or untying at least one of the knots 21, and then inserting a new piece of rope. Furthermore, if desired,

the slots 14 may be tapered to have narrower outlets as shown in FIG. which further prevents the rope 20 from sliding out of the slots.

In FIG. 6 the plate or disk 10 may have diagonally anchored thereto three or more U-shaped 'blades or scrapers 30 with cutting edges 31 substantially parallel to the surface to be scraped, and at an angle to the radial slots 11 and 12. These blades 30 may be removably attached 'by bolts 32 through these slots 11 and 12.

Removably fastened to the upper surface of the scrubbing member or disk 10 there maybe provided a hub, driving connector, or locking means 40 as shown in FIGS. 1, 3, and '4, which may be removably attached to the upper surface of the scrubbing plate 10 such as by means of countersunk screws 41 through apertures 42 in the hub portion 40. The center of this hub portion 40 may be hollow to form a socket 43 with upper inwardly notched flanges 44 for easy engagement with and disengagement from a cooperating bayonet-type end on a driving means 55 of a floor treatment machine 50 as shown in FIG. 3.

Further in FIG. 3 there is schematically shown a housing 51 on the machine 50 for therotating plate or disk 10, upon which housing 51 may be mounted a motor housing 52 and through the top of which housing 51 there may be provided a liquid tube 53 which may be connected to a reservoir (not shown) of cleaning liquid that may be employed With the scrubber member 10 of this invention. This liquid is preferably dropped or intermittently applied to the top of the plate or disk 10 near its center, and because of the length of the slots 11, it can run through these slots to the scrubbing bottom surface 17 of the disk 10 for immediate action.

Furthermore, if desired, the hub 40 may be placed eccentric of the disk 10 to increase its scrubbing action, and/or the radial slots 11, 12, 13, and 14 may be eccentrically offset for the same reason.

I claim:

1. A scrubbing disk for a floor treating machine, said disk comprising:

(a) a rigid circular plate having:

(1) a bottom surface with a substantially fla portion,

(2) a top surface,

(3) a first plurality of angularly spaced radial slots between said surfaces and'extending from the periphery of said plate more than half Way towards its center, and

(4) a second plurality of equal angularly spaced radial slots between adjacent ones of said first plurality of slots and extending from the periphery of said plate less than half way toward its center, said slots being adapted to receive a rope and having narrower inlets than inner ends to form a plurality of wedge shaped disk sections to retain the rope in said slots, and

(b) hub means mounted on the top surface of said plate having means for releasably attaching said disk to said machine for imparting a scrubbing action to said fiat portion of said plate.

2. A scrubbing disk according to claim 1 wherein said circular plate is composed of glass fiber reinforced plastic material.

3. A scrubbing disk according to claim 1 wherein said plate has a central concave portion on said bottom surface having a diameter of at least about half the diameter -of said disk. v

4. A scrubbing disk according to claim 1 including a replaceable rope means interwoven between at least some of said slots for providing segments of scrubbing fabric ribs on said one side of said disk.

5. A scrubbing disk according to claim 4 wherein the ends of said rope means are fastened to said other surface of said disk by knots therein.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 753,497 3/1904 Kimball 15-230.18 2,155,462 4/1939 Anderson 15--220 X 2,916,759 12/1959 Smith 15231 X 2,643,692 6/1953 OBrien -121 X 393,866 12/1888 Taylor 2810 1,425,786 8/1922 McGovern 15230.16 2,722,090 11/1955 Hasselquist 51-170.2 2,811,816 11/1957 Back 51364 X FOREIGN PATENTS 224,160 2/1943 Switzerland. 1,200,804- 7/1959 France.

WALTER A. SCHEEL, Primary Examiner L. G. MACHLIN, Assistant Examiner US. 01. X.R. 1s 93, 98, 230.18 

